Rock, Rock, Rockaway Beach: Photography Run #1
I’m back from a hibernation long enough to embarrass even Yogi Bear. Except for a week that I was off from work in late March-early April, which I pretty much spent snapping pictures throughout the NYC area, my blogging has fallen by the wayside. Two reasons for that: (1) I got sudden inspiration for a writing project, which kept me very busy earlier this spring until the inspiration suddenly disappeared, and (2) my mind has been all over the place since I got a 90-day layoff notice from the library last month.
That said, almost THREE months ago, I took an excursion on the A train to do a long run out on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk. Most of Rockaway Beach is pretty desolate to begin with, and going on a 47-degree day two weeks after a severe storm decimated NYC beaches made the sense of isolation almost incredible.
A horrendous storm hit New York City on March 13, 2010, complete with EIGHTY mile per hour winds, which downed trees, cut power in some parts of the NYC area for days, and created massive beach erosion. (If the erosion seems dramatic here, wait until you see my next set of pictures, taken from Jones Beach two days later.)
The Rockaways are a narrow peninsula that's a quick jump across Jamaica Bay from Kennedy Airport. When you're on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, you're reminded of that almost constantly. MAN, do those planes fly low.
Unfortunately, the proximity of the Rockaways to the airport had catastrophic results on November 12, 2001. Just two months after the 9/11 attacks, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, a residential neighborhood along the peninsula, killing 5 people on the ground -- and 260 passengers on the plane.
Good thing I can run, because I've got the boardwalk to myself here.
The southern end of the Rockaway peninsula is fairly well-to-do; the northern end, Far Rockaway, is a typical inner-city environment. The vast section in the middle is pretty desolate, and shockingly undeveloped in parts. Some of it has seemingly been neglected for decades.
The elevated A train, which connects the Rockaways with mainland Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, passes over a vacant lot.
"Day camp"? This building, near the Beach 67th Street station on the A train, might pass for a much different type of camp.
Even the street that serves as one of the main drags of Rockaway Park, Beach 116th Street, is not without some bizarre elements:
A "hotel" on Beach 116th Street that doesn't appear to be for the faint of heart. It advertises day rates...for those who have something naughty on their minds.
I wonder if this is an active reception hall. Would you want to have your wedding here?
Down the block from the Beach 116th Street train station is a lovely little waterfront park, Tribute Park, that serves as the peninsula's September 11 memorial. The Rockaways, a place many policemen and firemen call home, had a disproportionate share of deaths on 9/11.
There are many touching memorials in the NYC area. I particularly like the design of this one:
From the edge of the park, facing Jamaica Bay, a very distant view of the Manhattan skyline. Midtown Manhattan is about a 75-minute ride on the A train from the Rockaways.
The first 5-10 minutes on the A train, going away from the Rockaways, are some of the most scenic minutes you'll ever spend within a metropolitan transit system. The train passes seemingly inches over Jamaica Bay, with an amazing view of Kennedy Airport, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and of course, the bridges going over the bay:
The Cross Bay Bridge, built in 1970, takes Rockaway peninsula residents home -- but at a cost. I don't know which deal is worse: having to pay $11 to cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to get to Staten Island, or having to pay $5.50, round-trip, to travel within the same borough.
Some of the bay-facing houses on the island of Broad Channel, a quick stop between mainland Queens and the Rockaway peninsula, are literally on stilts. With weather events as crazy as they've been lately, I don't think I'd pay much to live in one of these houses.
Smitty's! You can always trust a man named Smitty, and supposedly, Smitty's Boat Rentals is something of an institution in Broad Channel.
That said, almost THREE months ago, I took an excursion on the A train to do a long run out on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk. Most of Rockaway Beach is pretty desolate to begin with, and going on a 47-degree day two weeks after a severe storm decimated NYC beaches made the sense of isolation almost incredible.
A horrendous storm hit New York City on March 13, 2010, complete with EIGHTY mile per hour winds, which downed trees, cut power in some parts of the NYC area for days, and created massive beach erosion. (If the erosion seems dramatic here, wait until you see my next set of pictures, taken from Jones Beach two days later.)
The Rockaways are a narrow peninsula that's a quick jump across Jamaica Bay from Kennedy Airport. When you're on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, you're reminded of that almost constantly. MAN, do those planes fly low.
Unfortunately, the proximity of the Rockaways to the airport had catastrophic results on November 12, 2001. Just two months after the 9/11 attacks, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, a residential neighborhood along the peninsula, killing 5 people on the ground -- and 260 passengers on the plane.
Good thing I can run, because I've got the boardwalk to myself here.
The southern end of the Rockaway peninsula is fairly well-to-do; the northern end, Far Rockaway, is a typical inner-city environment. The vast section in the middle is pretty desolate, and shockingly undeveloped in parts. Some of it has seemingly been neglected for decades.
The elevated A train, which connects the Rockaways with mainland Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, passes over a vacant lot.
"Day camp"? This building, near the Beach 67th Street station on the A train, might pass for a much different type of camp.
Even the street that serves as one of the main drags of Rockaway Park, Beach 116th Street, is not without some bizarre elements:
A "hotel" on Beach 116th Street that doesn't appear to be for the faint of heart. It advertises day rates...for those who have something naughty on their minds.
I wonder if this is an active reception hall. Would you want to have your wedding here?
Down the block from the Beach 116th Street train station is a lovely little waterfront park, Tribute Park, that serves as the peninsula's September 11 memorial. The Rockaways, a place many policemen and firemen call home, had a disproportionate share of deaths on 9/11.
There are many touching memorials in the NYC area. I particularly like the design of this one:
From the edge of the park, facing Jamaica Bay, a very distant view of the Manhattan skyline. Midtown Manhattan is about a 75-minute ride on the A train from the Rockaways.
The first 5-10 minutes on the A train, going away from the Rockaways, are some of the most scenic minutes you'll ever spend within a metropolitan transit system. The train passes seemingly inches over Jamaica Bay, with an amazing view of Kennedy Airport, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and of course, the bridges going over the bay:
The Cross Bay Bridge, built in 1970, takes Rockaway peninsula residents home -- but at a cost. I don't know which deal is worse: having to pay $11 to cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to get to Staten Island, or having to pay $5.50, round-trip, to travel within the same borough.
Some of the bay-facing houses on the island of Broad Channel, a quick stop between mainland Queens and the Rockaway peninsula, are literally on stilts. With weather events as crazy as they've been lately, I don't think I'd pay much to live in one of these houses.
Smitty's! You can always trust a man named Smitty, and supposedly, Smitty's Boat Rentals is something of an institution in Broad Channel.